Help me with some level 13 encounters [kk]

[Victim]

I'm involved in an online game where we try to challenge each other with tough and fun encounters. My contribution is to be a set of three encounters for level 13 characters.

Here's the first one:
[sblock]

Encounter Level Difficulty: Standard (6100)
8 PCs
Party Level 13

Setup
Choker is off to the side and rear
Dryads are disguised
Everything except one Dryad is at least trying to hide


This encounter includes the following:
2 Shambling Mound
2 Dryad
1 Stormrage Shambler
1 Feywood Choker
1 Briar Witch Dryad
1 Warthorn Battlebriar


2 Shambling Mound Level 9 Brute
Large natural animate (plant) XP 400 each

2 Dryad Level 9 Skirmisher
Medium fey humanoid XP 400 each

1 Stormrage Shambler Level 11 Elite Controller
Large natural animate (plant) XP 1200

1 Feywood Choker Level 12 Lurker
Medium fey humanoid XP 700

1 Briar Witch Dryad Level 13 Elite Controller
Medium fey humanoid XP 1600

1 Warthorn Battlebriar Level 14 Controller
Large natural animate (plant) XP 1000

Tactics
Shamblers and Battlebriar tie up melee threats, keeping them within auras. Stormrage will try to catch other shamblers as well as foes in Lightning Blast..

Choker sneaks behind to engage rear PC

Dryads use Tree Stride to set up charges, hopefully against isolated target near tree for repeat performance

Briar Witch tries to assist main melee force with auras and use Briar Cage. [/sblock]


Any comments or concerns about the difficulty or playability of this set up? I need to adjust the map a bit before it's ready to post.

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Here's the rough plan for #2: a solo fight with some enemy filler to prevent the PCs from focusing all their attention on the solo.

[sblock]
Encounter Level Difficulty: Standard (7200)
8 PCs
Party Level 13

Setup
Dragon flies in
Shambling Mounds arrive 1 round later at map edge?

This encounter includes the following:
5 Shambling Mound
1 Stormrage Shambler
1 Adult Blue Dragon


5 Shambling Mound Level 9 Brute
Large natural animate (plant) XP 400 each

1 Stormrage Shambler Level 11 Elite Controller
Large natural animate (plant) XP 1200

1 Adult Blue Dragon Level 13 Solo Artillery
Large natural magical beast (dragon) XP 4000

Tactics
Dragon uses Breath weapon when available, otherwise fires lighting burst attack at PCs in melee with mounds for damage+healing. Overexposed PCs can be engaged in melee if the mounds are holding people up.

The mounds are to open a second front, threatening and hopefully surrounding ranged PCs if the melee characters chase after the dragon, or tying down melee characters. With a potential heal of 15 per round, the mounds shouldn't go down easy. [/sblock]


The combination of an at will Lightning Burst 3 with the healing ability on the Mounds was too good to pass up - in some ways, it inspired everything else. The monsters here are in it for the long haul.

Apparently, the Stormrage Shamblers are the result of sustained lightning attacks.

This is supposed to be a harder fight, at 20% over the normal standard encounter amount. It still falls into the standard band of difficulty, but I feel the synergy between the dragon and the plants should produce a tough fight anyway, somewhat out of proportion with the XP total.

I'm not entirely sure how I want the mounds to be deployed. They're sort of slow, and I don't want the PCs blitzing the dragon down and then turning their attention to the mounds. On the other hand, I do want the monsters to basically be arriving from off board as a sort of counter attack.

 

[Mengu]

I'd be concerned these are a little too easy despite all the synergy. There is a lot of redundancy in an 8 PC group so you may need to push the envelope a bit further.

For the first encounter, I'd turn the Warthorn Battlebriar into an elite. The Battlebriar and the Dryad are likely to be the last two left, and even then, they'll still have some synergy going between them to keep things interesting.

For the second encounter, just make the dragon a bit scarier. Give it 1 more action point, change its Frightful Presense to a minor action, and recharge it when first bloodied. Also have the breath weapon automatically recharge the first time you fail a recharge roll. Have the dragon fly around and use its Breath Weapon and Lightning Bursts as long as it can.

 

[Victim]

There's a third planned encounter at +50% of standard XP that I haven't posted yet - the dragon isn't the main boss (but he is the only solo). The PCs are supposed to handle them all without taking an extended rest. Does that change your assessment of the difficulty?

I do have some concerns about things being too easy. On the other hand, in this PbP game, I don't think the group will be able to coordinate as well as a ftf group.

The format does make it easy to adjust encounters 2 and 3 depending on how well the early ones go. That's one reason I'm tempted to keep #1 as close to the standard XP budget as I can, since it should help with calibration.

The last encounter is supposed to be something like this right now:

[sblock]
Lamia
4x Bog Hag
2x Battle Briar
Level 14 Feyborn Succubus
Briar Witch Dryad
2x Fey Knight

I was thinking of replacing the Dryad with another Lamia, since those things seem to have a really hard hitting attack.

The 2 Fey Knights might become 1 Fey Knight with the Warlord template; however concerns have been raised about using too many defensive abilities and low level elites. They're just supposed to dot people with their marks, buff with their aura, use their take damage ability to improve the more important fey, and maybe throw javelins or something
[/sblock]

 

[Quartz]

In the first encounter you've got 3 controllers. IIRC the DMG suggests only 1 to keep the DM's workload down.

In the third, why not make the fey knights minions?

 

[Mengu]

That's one reason I'm tempted to keep #1 as close to the standard XP budget as I can, since it should help with calibration.

The target xp for 8 level 13 characters would be 6400. You are below that number which makes it an easy encounter (Level-1). Level and Level+1 are standard, so your target XP range should be 6400-9599.

Easy encounters are fine in a normal game, especially when you have some synergy going the way you have it setup, but if you are having only 3 encounters in the day, and this is a one shot game, I'd go with 2 standards and a hard.

 

[Victim]

The target xp for 8 level 13 characters would be 6400. You are below that number which makes it an easy encounter (Level-1). Level and Level+1 are standard, so your target XP range should be 6400-9599.

...
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I cannot perform basic math. I was aiming for 6k as a normal standard for some reason.

In that case, let's replace a Shambling Mound with a Battlebriar, bringing the total to 6700. Good call.

In the first encounter you've got 3 controllers. IIRC the DMG suggests only 1 to keep the DM's workload down.

In the third, why not make the fey knights minions?

It's a PbP, so I'm not overly worried about my workload. Plus none of the controllers seem all that complex in terms of strategy - the only real tricky part is drawing the auras.

The fey knights are not minions because their basic combat prowess isn't particularly important to my plan. Their special abilities are far more important, and not all that level dependent, IMO. Minions tend to not have those abilities.